Pathfinder - Inquisitor Archetypes Breakdown

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
unmanageable volume of non-SRD content, and the wildly varying quality of non-SRD content.
If you would like me to write handbooks for specific content not published on the official
SRD, please email me and I will consider it on a case-by-case
basis. I will use the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build
handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Temporary Note: Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures were
both recently added to the SRD. I'm excited to explore them, and I am actively working
on adding their contents to my collection of handbooks. I appreciate your patience while
I make these changes.

Archetypes

The Inquisitor is a very versatile class on level with the Bard. Depending on your
choices of Domain, Inquisition, Skills, and combat style, you the Inquisitor can fill
a wide variety of roles in the party. When picking your archetype, consider what roles
you intend to fill.

Do you hate magic items? Do you like slowing down the game for hours every turn
to force the GM to recalculate enemies' stats? Well get the hell out. No one wants to
play with you. This archetype is a giant middle finger to directed at whatever
semblace of pacing your GM has managed to establish.

Shake Effects (Ex): Very situational.

Detect Magic (Sp): Or you could just learn the cantrip.

Dispelling Attack (Sp): Considerably better than Discern
Lies. Use this on enemies with a pile of items.

Negating Critical (Sp): On the astoundingly infrequent
occasions that this gets triggered, you're going to have to stop the game and roll
like 20 fortitude saves. I hope you brought food for the group, because they're going
to be super angry every time you need to use this ability.

Destroy Artifact (Sp): Destroying an artifact should be a
super cool quest, not something you just spend a week hand-waving.

The Infiltrator is a cool concept. It shuffles some of the Inquisitor's Scout and
Face abilities and manages to make the Infiltrator better at both roles without
giving up anything of any real value except Stern Gaze. It also helps to reduce the
Inquisitor's MAD, which makes this a fantastic choice over vanilla Inquisitor if you
don't want any other archetype.

Misdirection (Sp): This is great in situations where
you have people trying to detect your alignment a lot, but those situations are rare
in most campaigns. This helps a bit when trying to serve as an Infiltrator Scout, and
can allow you to go places where even a Rogue couldn't go.

Guileful Lore (Ex): This makes it much easier to serve
as the party's Face without needing to invest in Charisma. If you combine this with
the Conversion/Heresy inquisitions, you can add your Wisdom bonus twice and not touch
your Charisma at all. However, Guileful Lore doesn't touch Intimidate, and you give
up Stern Gaze for Misdirection, so you can't rely on Intimidate as much as a normal
Inquisitor.

Forbidden Lore (Ex): This is situational, but less so
thank Tracking.

Necessary Lies (Su): Extremely situational, but you
can't replicate this with a spell like you can with Discern Lies.

The Sacred Huntmaster trades in the Inquisitor's Judgement ability for an Animal
Companion and the Hunter's Animal Focus ability. As fantastic as Judgement is, this
is a very fair trade.

Animal Companion (Ex): Animal Companions are fantastic,
and the Hunter's version adds the ability to take Skirmisher Ranger Tricks in addition
to normal animal tricks.

Hunter Tactics (Ex): Teamwork Feats are often problematic
because they require that you have someone else to cooperate with. This resolves that
issue by giving you a free team mate.

Animal Focus (Su): Animal Focus is very versatile, and
can provide a lot of buffs which will serve the same purpose as Judgement. Because the
duration for Animal Focus is measured in minutes, you may be able to stretch it over
more combats in a day than you could use Judgement. Because this ability functions as
the Hunter ability of the same name, you can assign Animal Focus enhancements to your
Animal Companion even though the entry doesn't specifically state it. Remember that
aspects granted to your animal companion have no duration, which makes them especially
potent.

Raise Animal Companion (Sp): Provided that you have a
day to rest, this is effectively free.

Second Animal Focus (Ex): By this level the ability score
enhancements give you a +6 bonus, which makes this ability as effective as a 45,000 gp
item for both you and your animal companion, and considerably more versatile.

Greater Empathic Link (Su): Situational, but being
able to give orders to your companion telepathically makes it much easier to command
it while you are looking through its eyes.

Studied Target is a Fantastic ability, but the Sanctified Slayer's weak Sneak
Attack progression and severely limited number of Slayer Talents really hurt the
viability of the Sanctified Slayer Archetype. It's not completely awful, but it
likely won't keep pace with a vanilla Inquisitor making good use of Judgement.

Studied Target (Ex): Studied Target is a fantastic
ability. Remember that the DC bonus applies to Slayer class abilities, so it does not
apply to Inquisitor spells.

Sneak Attack (Ex): Sneak Attack at the same rate as a
Slayer, but you get it one level behind. This won't amount to a lot of damage,
especially with the Inquisitor's 2/3 BAB.

Talented Slayer (Ex): You only get 4 talents. As good
as the Slayer's Talents are, with so few of them you don't really have a lot of options.
For help with Slayer Talents, see my
Slay Talents
Breakdown.

Eat Sin is a really cool healing mechanic, and Speak with Dead adds a nice utility
effect on top of the free healing. Inquisitions/Domains add a lot of cool options to
the Inquisitor, so think carefully when deciding to give them up.

Eat Sin (Sp): Basically a free use of Cure X wounds.
Fantastic for after combat when your party is resting and healing. Using this as a
full round action in combat should be a rare occurance. I'm not certain how the
undead portion of the ability works because you need to kill the enemy to eat its
sins, and if you killed the enemy it won't typically rise as a shadow, spectre, or
vampire because those creatures need to be killed by their creator to become those
creatures.

Speak with Dead (Sp): Speak With Dead is situational,
but if you go around eating everyone's sins, you might as well ask them questions.
Ask them weird stuff like "where is the trasure?" or "what did you have for breakfast?"

Burden of Sin (Sp): Consolidate your parties status
afflictions, then have someone remove them all at once.

Strong-Willed is good enough to make this archetype worth a class dip for any
mage hunting character. Like many mage killing archetypes, the Spellbreaker is good
at making Concentration checks hard, and provides the Inquisitor with excellent
resistances against magic.

Strong-Willed (Ex): Mind-affecting effects make up most
Will saves, which means you get to reroll almost every Will save in the game.

Defense against Magic (Ex): It's difficult to pick
which schools you need resistance to. Evocation, Enchantment, Necromancy, transmutation,
and Illusion are all good choices. Remember that you get a reroll against Mind-Affecting
effects (most Enchantment and Illusion effects are mind-affecting), and your first
choice will affect Impervious when you get it at level 20.

Foil Casting (Su): Stacking with Disruptive is great,
but the ranged attack mechanic is weird and poorly defined. If you shoot the same
spellcaster three times, does the DC increase stack? Even if it does, you need to
prepare an action to shoot the spellcaster to force a concentration check.

Impervious (Ex): This is great for common spell schools
like Evocation. Walk through fireballs. Ignore magic missiles. Kill some wizards.

The Witch Hunter is about on par with the Spellbreaker, but functions differently.
Both archetypes are good, so if you plan to hunt mages pick whichever fits your play
style best.

Spell Sage (Ex): This should save you several ranks on
Spellcraft at the very least. Of course, to take advantage of Knowledgeable Defense
you will want to maximize Spellcraft.

Knowledgeable Defense: The bonus is pretty great, and
it's a fun way to motivate you to identify spells. Granting your allies the bonus is
weird and poorly worded. Because you can't share the bonus as an immediate action, you
need to use it for ongoing spells which allow saves after the spell is cast. Or you
might interpret the rule to mean that you share the bonus as a swift action, then
every time a spell is cast you can make a Spellcraft check to share the bonus with
all of your allies. Fortunately, the sharing mechanic doesn't come into play until
level 20.

Spell Scent: This is a really cool flavor, and it's
considerably more fun than Tracking.